Egg Hunt

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about 

life: it goes on.” 

― Robert Frost

Sometimes life will throw you a curveball, punch you in the gut or just hold you in limboland. It is different for everybody.  But what is the same is that whatever it is that seemingly stops your world, life still rolls on and continues no matter what.  Time marches on, the sun rises and sets and the "right now" will only be here once.

And right now, it is the Easter season.  So off to an Easter egg hunt we went, with our "bucket for eggs."

The egg hunt was held in a huge greenhouse in our town which was fantastic because it is still a bit chilly and sloppy outside.

Sully saw this and said, "That's Raph.  That's not Donnie." Ooo-kay.

And he's off...

These parents were setting up some eggs for their little one when Sully swooped in and picked up one of the eggs.

We told Sully that egg was for that little boy and he so sweetly went over and sent the egg out for the little one to find.  I nearly bawled.

Don't worry, I held it together and we journeyed on...

Boy Wonder.

He kept a safe distance from the bunny.

It was here were the nugget decided he needed to go home and "drink some juice."  So we turned in our eggs and he got a bag with "candies and chocolates."  He was thrilled.  And it felt pretty good to actually pick up my camera again.

Hope you all have a Happy Easter.  Roll on, warriors.

Tales from Toddler Town

Toddler Town has a special set of rules and regulations that I am still getting used to.  But there is certainly punishments and penalties for violating the laws.  Usually the punishment is in the form of a meltdown, a fall to pieces, a tension tantrum, a small pointer finger pointing in the wrong direction with a stern "stop it, no funny" to accompany it.

Of course these rules, regulations and laws are subject to change at anytime, day, minute or second.  You have to be on your toes if you are going to venture into Toddler Town.

For instance, today in Toddler Town, it is illegal to cut grilled cheese sandwiches in half and they must be eaten from the center.  They also need a side of ketchup that cannot be used.  See below.

On Sunday in Toddler Town, there was some coup activity.  No lie, it was the day I was dreading for months now.  This involved an overthrow of the previous sleeping arrangement that we were all so comfortable with for so long.  That's right, there was a climb out of the crib attempt.  The hubs and I did not feel comfortable chancing putting him back into the crib so we transitioned him to the big boy bed.  

It only took about 14 trips back up to his room to place him back into bed each time we saw him purposefully flip his little body out of bed (we were glued to our video baby monitor).  But he did fall asleep and slept all night until 6:00 this morning.  Nap time today was interesting.  I went in there about 10 times but he was relentless so I laid down next to him and he was sleeping in about 45 seconds.  He didn't even wake up when I got up and crept out of his room.  I also took a nap at the same time.  By the time realized he was up, he had been busy.  He had removed his pants and diaper, turned the light on and took the humidifier apart.  When I walked in, he says "I poopy."  You can imagine my panic and my mad search to make sure he did not drop a deuce on the floor and then stash it somewhere.  Luckily, there was no trace of such activity.  Phew.  We will see how tonight goes...

 Positive reinforcement for sleeping in the big boy bed (not bribery).

 He ate them one by one as fast as he could just in case I might change my mind and take them away.

 Then he had so much energy, he composed a delightful (loud) little number just for his Mama.

 No worries, I trimmed that hockey hair back to acceptable levels tonight during his bath this evening.

Happy Monday from Toddler Town!!

Its Spring Vignette Time

Remember last year's spring vignette?  Yeah, I knew I could do better this year.

But wait!  Forgot to show you my winter vignette!  Here is a crappy iPhone pic of it complete with tin foil covered cookie tray:

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that wreath on the mirror.  Like obsessed with it, but it was really winter-y and I am trying to usher in some spring in WI so it had to go.

Here is this year's spring vignette:

 Yes I recycled the umbrella picture and I can't stop hanging wreaths on my favorite mirror- addicted!!

 Please pretend not to notice the dirty mirror.  You would think I would have cleaned it before hanging another wreath on it or at least before taking pics of it.

 Gnomes?  Hell yes!

 I cannot help myself. I have to buy at least 2 or 3 of these $1 bird houses from JoAnn fabrics every time I am there.  I think I have like 12 of them.  Some are natural and some I white washed.  (For the record, I don't even like birds, I think they are creepy.  But I have a weakness for miniature things!)

 The cake stand above was an easy DIY project using a vase, serving platter/plate, heavy duty glue and spray paint.  See below:

 Vase

 Platter

 Then I spray painted it with 2-3 coats of Krylon 2X white spray paint.

And lastly, the crafty wreath consisting of a foam core, burlap strips, felt and buttons.  Done.

Addiction...

Like many other humans out there, our little family has developed a strange obsession with Costco.  I like it for buying my Keurig coffees and Sully's diapers.  Clayton likes it for the food samples and clothes (yeah, the clothes...no lie).  And Sully likes it for the giant hot dog.  Overall, its a win-win-win for us.




It was one of those samples that turned us onto our own personal crack....




Annie's Sweet and Salty Kettle Corn:

The hubs, myself and Sully were completely over-the-moon in love with this stuff.  We even used it for bribing purposes with Sully ("You can have some popcorn if you eat some spaghetti first" or "you can have some popcorn if you drink your special juice."  The special juice was a concoction of Augmentin and juice- very special.).  It took us 5 1/2 days to eat a giant bag.

But that is not all!  We struck gold again in the snack department.  The other must-have item was this salsa:

I can't take credit for this fancy photo, found it on the salsa's website.

If you aren't a fan of cilantro, it probably isn't for you.  But we love cilantro and it took most of my willpower not to just drink it.

So pretty much the most successful and fruitful Costco trip on the planet.  Oh yeah, Clayton got a nice, classy button down shirt too.

Out and About

"That wasn't so bad."

"Not as bad as last time."

"Could have been worse."

These are the comments that define a successful outing with toddler.  For some ridiculous reason, I thought I would be better than the average human at going on outings with a toddler.  I thought I would be more patient, be better prepared, be able to redirect and distract more efficiently...or just have a more well-behaved child, aka a child that is above average in the behavior category.  Well, I am not and I don't.

We had some pretty epic fails in the outing department several months ago.  So great a fail and so many that I had developed a sort of anxiety to take my son out in public.  I would avoid it at all costs.  Which made my toddler's world quite small, a circuit of daycare, home, Grandma's house, Shager's house.  This short circuit made my anxiety stay at a minimum, but it really stifled my toddler's ability to learn and explore.  It was not practical to avoid taking him anywhere.

So we have been re-emerging into the world of the living.  Taking short jaunts out in public, where there are other human beings and things.  We went out to brunch yesterday and Costco today.  Luckily, each outing was followed by the comments from above.

I think that two months in the world of a toddler is an eternity.  So much maturation and growth can, and did, happen.  That is not to say that there was not a dunking of a little hand in a cup of syrup and then a freak out because the syrup was sticky or that there was not a snotty, loud, "NOOOOOOO" with arm flaps and kicks when he was told he had to stay in the cart.  Each outing was also prefaced with a discussion about how a big boy acts: sitting nice and not crying.  The pre-game may or may not have involved a certain toddler to "promise" that he will be good before we could leave the house.  And then a reminder about his "promise" before we leave the car once at our destination.

He enjoyed himself and my anxiety is in-check.  Win-win.